Louis XVI preferred making locks and hunting deer to governing France — and his kingdom paid the price. He inherited a bankrupt nation, failed to push through the reforms that might have saved the monarchy, and was eventually dragged from Versailles by a revolutionary mob. The well-meaning but indecisive king who could build a perfect lock mechanism could not fix the broken machinery of the French state.

This episode traces Louis from his shy, awkward youth through his marriage to Marie Antoinette, the financial crisis that triggered the Revolution, the flight to Varennes that sealed his fate, and the guillotine execution that shocked Europe.

• Louis’s introverted personality, his passion for locksmithing, and his unprepared ascent to the throne
• The financial crisis, the calling of the Estates-General, and the Revolution he could not contain
• The flight to Varennes — the botched escape that turned public sympathy into fury
• The trial, the one-vote margin, and the execution that transformed European politics